


The Pleasure of His Company

by Lady_Ganesh



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Cannibalism, Food Kink, Gen, Kink Meme, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-15
Updated: 2013-04-15
Packaged: 2017-12-11 13:34:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/799307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Ganesh/pseuds/Lady_Ganesh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hannibal enjoys feeding Jack Crawford.</p>
<p>Written for the Hannibal kink meme, prompt: <em>Jack often visits Hannibal for dinner. Hannibal always gets off afterwards thinking about the menu and how Jack loved it.</em> The kink is implied rather than explicit here. (I changed the title and cleaned it up slightly before posting here.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Pleasure of His Company

Hannibal Lecter usually makes his own prosciutto. 

He uses sea salt for the meat, nothing as crass as commercial nitrates, and presses it gently, very gently. There is an old root cellar he uses, in the basement of a rental building three blocks from his home. He is fairly certain the residents, who are usually transient and often mentally ill, are not aware the cellar is even there, which is more than adequate for his purposes.

He leaves the salted meat to age for two months, checking on it as needed. Then he washes the salt out and leaves the prosciutto to hang. It needs at least a year to cure to the best flavor.

The flavor, in fact, is so exquisite he will not make saltimobocca without it, though he sometimes condescends to use veal as the main protein. He pounds the veal so it is consistently thin, like a child's palm, and seasons it with sage and a little of the prosciutto. 

In season, he goes to the farmer's market and buys fresh butter from a sincere post-modern hippie with a peasant skirt and a small herd of photogenic cows; he mixes it with the olive oil he bought on his last trip to Italy and sautes the meat in the hot fat.

The wine he uses to deglaze the pan is French, bought from the boutique he visits once a month. It takes time to cook the sauce - the remaining prosciutto, sage and wine - down to the proper thickness. He uses endive, another farmer's market prize, and perhaps more garlic than is recommended - though not too much; he has no interest in ruining the subtle balance of flavors. He adds garlic and lemon; he rarely needs additional salt at this stage, but often a dash of white pepper adds a pleasant bite.

Hannibal has a certain appreciation for the aesthetics of food presentation; he uses a simple plate for this visually busy dish, white napkins, full glasses of that lovely white wine.

Jack Crawford is all but visibly drooling when Hannibal places the full plate before him, and Hannibal feels a small, delightful thrill of satisfaction.

"You're an artist," Jack says appreciatively, and the thrill intensifies.

"I do aim to please," Hannibal says as he takes his own place at the table.

The saltimbocca is indeed excellent; tangy and spicy, with the deep, salty flavor of the prosciutto adding richness. 

Hannibal watches Jack's face as he eats, recording every smile and exclamation for his own use later that evening. "I wish my wife could cook like this," Jack says, and Hannibal smirks under his perfect host's mask. _Perhaps you do,_ he thinks, and takes another bite.


End file.
